In Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Edward Albee created a relatable situation in which one of the characters lacks power and overcompensates with mind games to help come to power. It is made very clear throughout the entire play that George is lacking and unsuccessful in many aspects of his life. In order to compensate for his lack of looks, professional success, and ability to form part of the ideal “American Family”, he creates different games which attack each of his guests vulnerabilities and
struggle with the reality of infertility. In his play, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Edward Albee utilizes dysfunctional couples in order to highlight the effect of disillusionment in the 1950s-1960s. Examining Edward Albee’s life presents information that shows how his experiences motivated the writing of his play. Albee was born Edward Harvey on March 12, 1928 in
conflicts occurring within his characters. From the beginning, Albee exercises this idea of illusion and self-deception. His title “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”, is a parody of “Who is Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf”, and metaphorically translates into “Who is afraid of living without false illusions” (which Albee admitted in one of his interviews). By alluding to Virginia Woolf, a writer famous for her stream of consciousness, Albee is creating an intellectual joke of both
man, there was children if you were married, and casual alcoholism. If one did not live up to these norms, they were either at the bottom of the social pyramid, or creating a fantasy world like the rest of society. Edward Albee’s play, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” emphasizes the true lack of “standard” lives people lived during this time. Having to either face these truths or drink them away was an easy decision. Alcohol created a physical gateway between each individual’s